What is the advantage of having a ZFS and/or a zvol under a volume?

[Gaucho]

Hello,

I just created a simple volume in FreeNAS with default settings, and created a CIFS share on it. I can copy, move, delete, create files and directories.

So what is the advantage of creating a ZFS dataset and/or a ZVOL under it? What benefits do they bring? All in all they look like another subdirectory under the volume just created, and I can't see an immediate benefit.

Please share your comments. Thanks in advance!

 

[gpsguy]

Read about the options available for datasets: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Volumes#Creating_ZFS_Datasets

 

[cyberjock]

We've also answered the question in eye-gouging detail in the past. Please search for those discussions if the manual is inadequate.

 

[Gaucho]

Read about the options available for datasets: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Volumes#Creating_ZFS_Datasets

Could you please post a screenshot of your volumes + ZFS datasets and ZVOLs? Just to have an idea how you guys are setting up your volumes

Thanks!

 

[Gaucho]

We've also answered the question in eye-gouging detail in the past. Please search for those discussions if the manual is inadequate.

The manual is OK, however I would just like to discuss the options a bit further. As for gpsguy, could you also post a screenshot of your volumes ans ZFS?

Thanks in advance.

Gaucho

 

[gpsguy]

There's not much for me to show.

All I wanted from FreeNAS was a robust file server, to store documents, pictures, ISO's, and backup image files. I use rsync and/or robocopy to backup the data to other devices. This setup meets my needs.

In my day job, I do SAN administration. I don't use FreeNAS, but the concepts are similar. We take snapshots of most of the LUNS. Depending on which LUN it is, it may have a disfferent schedule (days of the week), lifetime, etc.

Say for example, I used FreeNAS in a business. I might have a dataset containing my users files. If you wanted the ability to retrieve a backup that was no more than an hour old, one might create a periodic snapshot that had a lifetime of 1 week and ran at 1 hour intervals between 7AM and 7PM, Monday through Friday [assuming these were the typical business hours]. Say I have another dataset containing software/ISO's. A daily snapshot might be adequate. To retrieve a file, one might close a snapshot, share it out, retrieve the file, and destroy the clone.

With ZFS snapshots, one could configure replation tasks to copy the data to another system, whether it be in the same building or at an offsite location.

Datasets offer a number of features. As I said before the manual is comprehensive. And, search the forums. I typically use Google to search the forum - site:forums.freenas.org dataset

 

[Gaucho]

There's not much for me to show.

I see your point and got it. Still, do you mind in posting a screenshot?

Thank you :)